Borroso

Established in 2011 by sisters Maru and Claudia Turrent, Borroso was born of a love for ancestral traditions and a desire to sustainably promote the artisanal, agricultural products of Oaxaca.

Before the founding of Borroso, Claudia, an architect, was assisting with the buildout of a major new palenque (distilling site) in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca; meanwhile, Maru was working on a community outreach project—also in Oaxaca—promoting literacy and developing rural libraries. Seizing the opportunity to collaborate, the sisters began working on a social project to assist struggling mezcalero families.

Claudia and Maru found many mezcaleros were housing numerous batches, and the sisters pivoted to create a mezcal label that could provide a consistent market for these untapped stores. As an added benefit, this allowed them an opportunity to dovetail their respective skillsets into one family project.

Borroso works closely with mezcalero families who are actively preserving unique distilling methods, in turn helping families remain together while transferring the heritage of their mezcalero ancestors to subsequent generations rather than losing that knowledge to migration.

The word Borroso translates to “blurry” and refers to a non-binary world without edges or absolute truths—only an infinite palette of gradients where borders cease to exist, and prejudice is stripped away. Borroso acts as a conduit for the surreal experience of drinking mezcal, which can seemingly transcend the intellectual and earthy by evoking an ethereal, dream-like state of being. Everything is blurry until it becomes clear…

*Photo credit: Vivian Aldrete